Blog Posts by David Robbins

Three years ago this week, the Federal Communications Commission joined the Twitterverse with our handle @FCC. A few hours after sending our first Tweet, we used Twitter to announce our entry into the blogosphere: “FCC launches first-ever blog, called ’Blogband,’ to chronicle events of the National Broadband Plan. Check it out: http://broadband.gov/blog.”

With the goal of transparency, openness and citizen engagement, this began the FCC’s efforts to connect with our constituencies through social media to keep them informed about FCC events, issues we’re working on and our ongoing efforts to provide access to government data and digital content.

Three years and over 2,000 Tweets later, the FCC reaches nearly half-a-million followers on Twitter @FCC, which puts us in the top five among all government entities, behind @WhiteHouse, @NASA, @CDC and @Smithsonian.

The FCC’s growing community of cyclists has much to celebrate and be congratulated for as bicycling enthusiasts across the country mark National Bike Month.

Community events around the country have so far included Bike to School Day and Bike to Work Week, culminating today in Bike to Work Day. Here at the Commission, they have also included two distinct honors.

On Wednesday, the Interagency Task Force for Bicycles and Active Transportation, created to implement President Obama’s executive order to promote a clean energy economy, named the FCC as the recipient of its first-ever Fedbikes Award. The award recognizes excellence in support for federal agency bicycle commuting.

And in April, the national League of American Bicyclists named the FCC as one of 67 new Bicycle Friendly Businesses. With its bronze-level certification, the Commission joins more than 400 local businesses, government agencies and Fortune 500 companies nationwide that are “transforming the American workplace” by supporting bicycle commuting, the League said.

The recognition is a credit to an FCC cyclist community that works passionately, and with strong support from Chairman Genachowski and Commission leadership, to promote and support bicycle commuting throughout the agency. Among the many accomplishments to date:

Just as the Internet is in a state of constant evolution, a good website must be in a constant state of innovation. Since the launch of the redesigned FCC.gov last spring, we have continued to roll out new site features and enhancements. The daily work is informed by feedback from an array of audiences – legal practitioners, consumers, telecom professionals and elected officials, to name a few – as well as by best practices in the federal Web community and the broader Internet.

Two months ago, we announced the launch of MyFCC in beta, a companion site to FCC.gov that lets individual users create their own FCC online experience, with quick access to the tools and information they need. Today, I thought I would take the opportunity to update you on a number of more recent developments, and to again invite your feedback and suggestions.

Building a website that serves many audiences is a complex challenge. And it is a challenge best met in partnership with the site’s frequent users.

That’s why today we are excited to announce the public Beta launch of MyFCC, and to solicit and encourage your feedback, questions and recommendations as part of our commitment to continual improvement of the FCC.gov experience.

MyFCC is a new tool designed to let you create a customized FCC online experience for quick access to the tools and information you need. Personalization options built into MyFCC make it possible to easily create, save and manage a customized page, choosing from a menu of “widgets” featuring a wide variety of the FCC’s most frequently used tools and services. Examples include the latest headlines and official documents, the Daily Digest, and quick access to forms and online filings. The public Beta offers 22 such widgets for starters, with more on the way.

With its various customization options, MyFCC not only lets you set up a personalized page, but also allows any individual or group to easily share content where it’s needed -- either on my.fcc.gov or on other websites. Each individual widget can be embedded on any other website and you can also create full dashboards of widgets to share with friends and colleagues.

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